Jose Luis Rivas, age 19, from Los Fresnos, Texas, Cameron county.
Parents: Aristeo Rivas
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Wednesday, April 15, 1970
Death details: Killed in action in Vietnam
Source: National Archives, Associated Press (1970)
Ruiz Francisco J. Borrego from Harlingen, Texas, Cameron county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Monday, April 6, 1970
Source: National Archives
Carlos Albert Jr. Estrada, age 27, from Brownsville, Texas, Cameron county.
Spouse: Clydene G. Estrada
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Thursday, March 19, 1970
Death details: Killed in action
Source: National Archives, Associated Press (1970)
Cruz Fernando Dela from Harlingen, Texas, Cameron county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Monday, March 16, 1970
Source: National Archives
Julian Robles Rodriguez from San Benito, Texas, Cameron county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Tuesday, January 6, 1970
Source: National Archives
Harvey H. Storms from Texas, Cameron county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Friday, December 1, 1950
Death details:
On July 29, 2019, the Defense POW/ MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) accounted for Maj. Harvey Harrell Storms, missing from the Korean War.
Storms entered the U.S. Army from Texas and served as the Executive Officer of Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He fought with the 31st Regimental Combat Team on the east side of the Chosin Reservoir during the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir in late November and early December 1950. On December 1, he was wounded during assaults against Hill 1221 where Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) had dug entrenchments to prevent Storms’ unit from withdrawing to Hagaru-ri. He was reportedly killed while leading an attack, but CCF roadblocks prevented trucks carrying wounded and dead soldiers from reaching friendly lines south of the reservoir, and Storms’ body was not recovered. In 2018, the North Korean government returned 55 boxes of human remains to the United States, including one set of remains recovered from Sinhung-ri on the east side of the Chosin Reservoir. These remains were brought to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, where scientists used forensic tools including DNA comparisons to identify Storms’ remains.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Porter M. Pile from Texas, Cameron county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Wednesday, September 27, 1944
Death details: On November 28, 2022, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Second Lieutenant Porter M. Pile, missing from World War II. Second Lieutenant Pile entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Missouri and served in the 700th Bombardment Squadron, 445th Bombardment Group. On September 27, 1944, he was navigator on a B-24 liberator (serial number 42-95078) that took off from Tibenham, England as part of a bombing mission against enemy targets in Kassel, Germany. After successfully dropping its bombs, the aircraft was on its return flight to England when its formation was attacked by roughly 150 German fighter planes. During the ensuing air battle, the B-24 was badly damaged, and several crew members were wounded. A fire soon started near the bomb bay, and three crew members bailed out. These men survived but were taken prisoner by German forces and were eventually returned to U.S. custody following the war. Reportedly, one of the wounded crew members was pushed from the aircraft by another, but his parachute did not open, and he died as a result. The remaining five crew members are believed to have gone down with the plane or were lost while attempting to bail out, and they could not be located following the incident. 2LT Pile was last seen with an injured leg standing near one of the plane’s exits, but it is unknown if he bailed out. German records did not report him as a prisoner of war. Following the war, the crash site for this Liberator was discovered by the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) outside Richelsdorf, Germany. An identification tag and human remains were discovered, but they could not be identified at the time and were interred as unknowns. In 2015 and 2016, three DPAA recovery teams performed excavation operations at the Liberator crash site. Remains recovered from these excavations and those recovered in 1951 were consolidated and accessioned for analysis at the DPAA Laboratory. The laboratory analyses and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established the remains as those of 2LT Pile.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Bruno G. Fuentes from Texas, Cameron county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Monday, August 17, 1942
Death details: Following the Allied surrender on the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942, the Japanese began the forcible transfer of American and Filipino prisoners of war to various prison camps in central Luzon, at the northern end of the Philippines. The largest of these camps was the notorious Cabanatuan Prison Camp. At its peak, Cabanatuan held approximately 8,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war that were captured during and after the Fall of Bataan. Camp overcrowding worsened with the arrival of Allied prisoners who had surrendered from Corregidor on May 6, 1942. Conditions at the camp were poor and food and water supplied extremely limited, leading to widespread malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and dysentery. By the time the camp was liberated in early 1945, approximately 2,800 Americans had died at Cabanatuan. Prisoners were forced to bury the dead in makeshift communal graves often completed without records or markers. As a result, identifying and recovering remains interred at Cabanatuan was difficult in the years after the war. Private Bruno G. Fuentes entered the U.S. Army from Texas and served in the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured following the American surrender and forced on the Bataan Death March. He was ultimately interned at the Cabanatuan Prison Camp, where he died of malaria on August 17, 1942. He was buried in a communal grave in the camp cemetery along with other deceased American POWs; however, his remains could not be associated with any remains recovered from Cabanatuan after the war. Today, Private Fuentes is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Stanley Joe Erwin, age 22, from Cameron County SanBenito, Texas .
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Killed aboard the USS Arizona
Source: National Archives, Valley Morning Star (1942)
Paul Smith Raimond, age 20, from Cameron County LaFeria, Texas .
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Killed aboard the USS Oklahoma. Accounted for December 5, 2016
Source: National Archives, Valley Morning Star (1942)